164 
VICIOUS HORSES. 
the horse rears in order to displace him; and old offenders, if they 
find they have a man on them determined to keep on, will rear so 
high as to fall backwards. If the horse only rears, but is not in 
other respects stubborn or restive, an easy bit, very light hands, 
and very gentle usage, will probably prevent, or, more properly 
speaking, will not cause him to do it; but if he is restive, that is, 
will go one way when we want him to go another, the chances are 
he beats us; for the moment his head is turned towards the road or 
place we wish him to go to, up he goes. 
I bought one in Ireland, knowing he was addicted to rearing, but 
certainly not knowing he was restive also. Getting that for 
thirt} r -six guineas that, in shape, action, size, and beauty, looked 
like four times the sum, tempted me. The first time I rode him I 
wanted to go a few miles from Dublin; he went about two miles 
as pleasantly as any horse living could: on a sudden he stopped, 
wheeled round, and bolted on the road back. I pulled him up, and 
turned him the way we had been going. Up he went, and on 
coming down, as before, bolted back. I did as before; so did he 
the moment I did so. The rogue by this manoeuvre got each time, 
perhaps, fifty yards nearer the town. We both worked away in 
this manner for two full hours, at the expiration of which I found 
myself within a quarter of a mile of Dublin. I found he was be¬ 
ginning to tire of this—I had been tired of it long enough; how¬ 
ever, on again turning him, he voluntarily trotted off the road I 
wanted to go: he was beat, fairly tired of his own game. He 
never was with me any thing like so bad afterwards; after a rear 
or two he would always knock under. Still he was dangerous. 
I broke him to harness, and sold him for seventy, as a match for 
three others. At this work or in the stable there could be no 
better-tempered animal. 
1 have not the slightest doubt but this horse had, as a colt, been 
given to some bull-rider of a breaker, whose rude hands had 
brought him, or occasioned him, to rear ; by doing this he found 
he could get, and go, his own way. In fact, he beat the breaker; 
and so, in truth, he did all of us, more or less. He probably found 
me his most troublesome customer, simply because I had patience, 
perseverance, and, above all, command of temper. I have no doubt 
he had thrown many persons who had not;—hundreds are thrown 
from such a cause. I will not allow that this was a vicious horse : 
he had been taught a vice, or, at all events, that had been done to 
him that had produced the vice. If he was really naturally vicious, 
why did he go quietly in harness the first time I put him in it] 
This he did, and with as much docility as if he had been at it from 
the day he was taken in hand. 
